Chapter 27 – The First One to Bleed

Chapter 27 – The First One to Bleed
RORY

The sound of the throat-clearing froze me in place. The note crinkled between my fingers, and I felt every beat of my heart slam against my ribs like it was trying to get out.

I turned slowly.

Kai stood in the doorway. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes—God, those eyes—were locked on mine like they were trying to pull the truth straight out of me.

“Find something interesting?” he asked, his voice low.

I folded the note, tucking it back into the envelope. “Just… paper.”

He didn’t move. Didn’t blink. And then, like he’d decided he’d gotten enough of whatever answer he was looking for, he stepped back, letting me pass without another word.

I walked out, forcing myself not to glance over my shoulder.

By nightfall, the house had shifted into something sharper. The air carried a kind of charge, and the brothers were… different. Distracted. Even Jace wasn’t making his usual snide comments.

Something was brewing.

I found out what an hour later.

It happened in the courtyard. I was at one of the tall windows in the hall when I heard the yell—short, loud, and ugly. My head snapped toward the sound. A second later, another voice shouted, and I was already moving, my feet carrying me toward the noise without thinking.

The door slammed open just as I reached it, and Nikolai barreled in, holding his side. Blood. There was blood.

For a moment, I just stared at it, my brain refusing to process.

“What the hell happened?” Enzo’s voice rang out as he appeared from another hall.

“Someone was inside,” Nikolai gritted out. His jaw was tight, but there was a wetness to his words like the pain was fighting to get through. “Didn’t see their face. Just—”

He broke off with a sharp hiss as Kai appeared behind him, scanning the area like a predator on alert.

“Get him to the med room,” Kai ordered.

Enzo moved fast, slipping an arm around Nikolai’s waist. Jace came from the opposite direction, his expression somewhere between fury and exhilaration.

“I told you security was slipping,” Jace said, not even trying to hide the accusation in his tone.

“Not now,” Kai snapped.

I hovered by the wall, my pulse still sprinting. The blood on Nikolai’s shirt had already gone from bright to dark, and I couldn’t tell if it was soaking faster than I wanted to believe.

“Rory,” Kai said suddenly, his voice pulling me from my frozen state. “Upstairs. Lock your door.”

I almost obeyed. Almost. But my feet didn’t move toward the stairs. Instead, I followed at a distance as they half-carried Nikolai to a back room I hadn’t been in before.

The med room was clean, sterile, and faintly smelling of alcohol. Enzo helped Nikolai onto the table, his movements careful but quick. Jace leaned against the wall, arms crossed, eyes dark.

Kai opened a drawer and pulled out supplies like he’d done it a hundred times before. “It’s not deep,” he said, glancing at Nikolai’s side. “You’ll live.”

“Shame,” Nikolai muttered under his breath, though the corner of his mouth twitched like he might’ve been joking.

But the tension in the room didn’t break. If anything, it doubled.

“Someone was inside,” Kai repeated, his tone flat but dangerous. “They got close enough to cut you. That doesn’t happen by accident.”

I swallowed hard, my mind flicking back to the note in the study.

Nikolai’s gaze found mine then, sharp even through the pain. “You didn’t see anyone, did you?”

I shook my head. “No.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie.

They stayed in that room for nearly an hour. I waited just outside, pretending I wasn’t listening, but every word carried. Talk of tightening security. Of finding “the breach.” Of making someone pay.

When they finally emerged, Nikolai’s shirt had been replaced with a fresh one, the stain of blood gone but the memory of it very much there.

The rest of the night was on edge. Doors locked. Windows checked twice. The air heavy with unspoken suspicion.

I couldn’t sleep. Not because I was afraid of whoever had attacked him, but because I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t random. Someone had sent a message, and I was caught in the middle of it—whether I wanted to be or not.

Around two a.m., I crept into the hall. The house was quiet, shadows stretching long across the walls. I headed for the library, the note burning in my pocket like it was alive.

I wanted to read it again. To look for some hidden clue I’d missed. But as I stepped into the library, I froze.

Jace was already there.

He was sitting in one of the chairs, a glass of whiskey dangling from his hand, eyes fixed on the dark beyond the window.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked without looking at me.

“Something like that,” I said.

His gaze slid to me then, sharp and assessing. “You know, most people get rattled when someone bleeds in front of them.”

“Most people aren’t me.”

He smirked, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “No. You’re not. Which makes me wonder…”

I waited.

“…if you know more than you’re letting on.”

I stepped closer, keeping my face calm. “And if I did?”

He tilted his head. “Then maybe you’re not the one in danger.”

Before I could ask what that meant, a sharp sound cracked through the quiet. Not loud enough to be a gunshot, but enough to make both of us tense.

Jace was on his feet instantly. “Stay here.”

I didn’t. Of course I didn’t.

We moved toward the source of the noise, our footsteps muffled on the thick carpet. As we rounded the corner into the east hall, I saw them—Kai and Enzo, standing over a crumpled figure on the floor.

My stomach dropped. It wasn’t Nikolai.

It was someone I didn’t recognize. Blood pooled under them, dark and spreading. Their face was pale, eyes closed.

“They’re alive,” Kai said shortly, crouching to check the pulse. “But not for long if we don’t move fast.”

Jace’s jaw tightened. “Who the hell are they?”

“Don’t know yet,” Enzo said. “But they had this.”

He held up a small black device—one that looked suspiciously like it could track every movement in the house.

My breath caught.

Because I’d seen one exactly like it before.

And I knew where.

Kai’s gaze swept the hall, landing on me for a fraction too long. “We need answers. Now.”

But my focus was stuck on the figure on the floor. The attacker… or the messenger?

Their hand twitched. Just barely.

And then their eyes opened—locking directly on mine.